Product for packing and similar purposes



April 18, 1939. H. w. ROMANOFF PRODUCT FOR PACKING AND SIMILAR PURPOSES Filed March 23, 1957 Patented Apr. 18, 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE Hippolyte W. Romanoff, New York, N. Y.

Application March 23,

1937, Serial No. 132,477

In France May 26, 1936 4 Claims.

The present invention relates to a product particularly applicable for packing and having important advantages as compared with those at present in use for this purpose.

Packing materials of the corrugated cardboard type usually consist of at least one sheet of a material having parallel undulations, which sheet is secured at one of its faces to an auxiliary plane sheet in order to prevent the flattening of the undulations when they are subjected to even a comparatively light pressure. However, this plane sheet merely acts as a support for the undulations Without appreciably increasing the resistance of the whole while, at the same time. reducing the flexibility of the corrugated sheet and increasing the cost of production of the material.

It is also customary, in order to ensure a suflicient resistance, to secure a second corrugated sheet on the other face of the plain sheet and this results in a further increase in the cost of production and a further reduction in the flexibility.

The final result is that if such a material is to serve for the protection of flat or cylindrical packages it plays its part very badly when the object to be protected has a round or irregular shape. The product also includes an unnecessary amount of material and is correspondingly heavy.

The present invention has for its object to provide a product of the character indicated which is inexpensive, very resistant and very flexible and capable of adapting itself perfectly to the contours of the object around which it is to be placed, even if these are irregular or rounded. By way of example there has been illustrated on the accompanying drawing and described below, one way in which the product according to the invention may be constructed.

Fig. 1 is a perspective View of a fragment of the sheet;

Fig. 2 is a view to a larger scale, in section through the centre of a series of sections of an undulation and parallel to the lines of creasing, taken on the line 2 to 2 of Fig. 1; and

Fig. 3 is a sectional View to a larger scale taken along a line of creasing according to the line 3 to 3 of Fig. l.

The product according to the invention is constituted by a flexible substance in sheet form comprising in the one direction a series of parallel undulations and in a direction at right angles to the preceding one a series of cross lines extending across said undulations. These lines, in one form which is particularly satisfactory,

itself from each side of each of the undulations in a direction normal to the axes of said undulations, each crease constituting an articulation, or hinge which ensures that the material will have a very high flexibility. It will, of course,

be understood that any suitable substance cap-aa ble of being produced in sheet form, for example paper, cardboard, cellulose acetate, gelatine, metal, etc'., may be used.

As compared with the known materials of the corrugated cardboard type, the new product has numerous advantages. Thus, the quantity of material necessary for its manufacture is much less than in the case of a corrugated cardboard having two sheets stuck on to a plane sheet. Its resistance to pressure is proportionally much greater, each longitudinal section of an undulation extending between two crease lines being individually reinforced against deformation by the pressing back of the material resulting from the creasing and the resultant shape of the sections of the undulations between the crease lines. Finally as each of the longitudinal sections of the undulations are very short and are articulated to their neighbouring sections by means of the transverse crease lines, the whole has a very high flexibility and is capable of fitting perfectly to the shape of the object to be protected even if it be irregular or spherical.

Referring to the drawing, the material, of which the two faces are identical, comprises parallel rows of undulations I, l, I and parallel rows of crease lines 2, 2, 2 which are normal to the axes of the undulations and define in the latter the short, longitudinal sections 3, 3', 3" 4, 4, 4" which are disposed alternately above (3, 3' and below (4, 4' the medial plane of the undulations. The position taken up by the material of the sheet where opposite lines of creasing approach each other substantially at the medial plane of the undulations can easily be seen from Fig. 3. At the end of each section of an undulation and between two adjacent sections 3 and 4, 3 and 4', 3 and 4' the material is folded upon itself in the form of box pleats, as shown at 5, 5', 5" thus forming a region of greater thickness, and therefore more resistant, and a hinge which permits of the displacement of each section independently of its adjacent sections.

The creasing of the undulations causes the side walls of each longitudinal section of the undulations to be splayed outwardly adjacent the crease lines, as shown in Fig. 3. The crease lines preferably are made so close to one another that the splaying out of the sides of the longitudinal sections of the undulations adjacent the crease lines causes each of those sections to be of substantially double-concave shape in plan' view, and as the crease lines depress the undulations at those places substantially to the medial plane of the undulations, each longitudinal section is substantially convex in side view. The shape thus imparted to the longitudinal sections of the undulations further assists in rendering the sheet resistant to crushing forces.

In the manufacture of this material there may be utilized a sheet of any suitable substance which has previously been corrugated, for example according to one of the known processes, and this material may then be passed through an apparatus comprising two or more rows of complementary combs between which are disposed two bars adapted to be brought together, the one against the other, in the medial plane of the undulations in order to cause the creasing. The teeth of the upper combs are in contact with the bottom of the depressed undulations and those of the lower combs with the bottom of the elevated undulations. These series of pairs of combs are fixed in place and the two bars are tightened against each other to crush between them the corresponding region of the undulations. During this tightening operation the sides of the undulations do not suflier crushing except in the regions where they are not supported by the teeth of the combs and this ensures that, as the material cannot slide laterally, it will fold upon itself as can be seen from Fig. 3.

It will be understood that this method of manufacture is only given by way of a non-limitative example and that various other devices may be employed in the production of the material forming the subject-matter of this invention.

In addition, this material may be employed for other purposes than for packing without departing from the scope of the present invention.

I claim:

1. The product for packing and other purposes comprising sheet material having a plurality of substantially parallel corrugations, said sheet having a series of box pleats extending substantially normal to the direction of the corrugations, said pleats being formed by the sheet material being creased on opposite sides along a plurality of spaced lines extending in a direction substantially normal to the axes of the undulations, the said creases being arranged in pairs with the creases of each pair being opposite one another and approaching the medial plane of the undulations.

2. The product adapted for packing and other purposes comprising sheet material having a. plurality of parallel undulations, said sheet having a plurality of spaced hinge sections extending substantially normal to the axes of the undulations, which hinge sections permit ready bending of the sheet material in said direction, said hinge sections being formed by the sheet being creased on opposite sides along a plurality of spaced lines extending in a direction substantially normal to the axes of the undulations, said creases being arranged in pairs with the creases of each pair being opposite one another and approaching the medial plane of the undulations.

3. The product adapted for packing and other purposes comprising sheet material having a plurality of parallel undulations, said sheet having a plurality of spaced hinge sections extending substantially normal to the axes of the undulations, which hinge sections permit ready bending of the sheet materialin said direction, said hinge sections being formed by the sheet being creased on opposite sides along a plurality of spaced lines extending in a direction substantially normal to the axes of the undulations, said creases being arranged in pairs with the creases of each pair being opposite one another and approaching the medial plane of the undulations, the ends of the longitudinal sections of the undulations adjacent the crease lines being splayed outwardly from the general lines of the sides of the undulations and said hinge sections being sufficiently close that the longitudinal sides of the undulations between the hinge sections are of generally doubleconcave shape in plan View.

4. The product adapted for packing and other purposes comprising sheet material having a plurality of parallel undulations, said sheet having a plurality of spaced hinge sections extending substantially normal to the axes of the undulations, which hinge sections permit ready bending of the sheet material in said direction, said hinge sections being formed by the sheet being creased on opposite sides along a plurality of spaced lines extending in a direction substantially normal to the axes of the undulations, said creases being arranged in pairs with the creases of each pair being opposite one another and approaching the medial plane of the undulations, the ends of the longitudinal sections of the undulations adjacent the crease lines being splayed outwardly from the general lines of the sides of the undulations and said hinge sections being sufiiciently close that the longitudinal sides of the undulations between the hinge sections are of generally double-concave shape in plan view and of generally convex shape in side view.

HIPPOLYTE W. ROMANOFF. 

